How To Use Your Instagram Profile Link To Increase Website Engagement

I wanted to stay with the general topic I ended last week with, social media. Last week was a guest post looking at the importance of social media in search engine optimization. This article I’m getting into the single Instagram profile link.

Instagram isn’t very generous with how many links you get unless you pay money. It’s a blessing and a curse.

For marketers and small businesses, it’s a curse because there’s no way to link directory to any content. For users, it’s a blessing because it keeps the network clean and uncluttered of spammy advertising.

I’ll take the curse in order to have a better user experience though.

If you’ve set up your Instagram profile already then you’ll know the pain. If you haven’t set it up yet be sure you do set up your Instagram profile.

The question is – how do you properly take advantage of the one Instagram profile link they give you?

You know, the Instagram link in the profile that people like to refer to in the hashtags with the popular hashtag #linkinprofile.

I’ve found an excellent way to use that one link more effectively if you’re trying to promote certain types of content.

Who Will This Work For?

This method provides you a great opportunity to lead visitors from your Instagram feed directly to content on your website that looks like your Instagram feed.

It won’t work for every type of content though.

It will work well if you’re doing either of these:

• Posting pictures related to your blog content.
• Curating a picture feed that can be linked to a feed of content on your website (art, photographs, etc.)

Any type of content that is (or can be) duplicated (or nearly) from your website to your Instagram feed lends itself well to this method.

If you see the opportunity in your content to use this method then I urge you to do so. If your website has content that follows closely to your Instagram feed then someone who’s interested in your Instagram content will be interested in your website content also.

I’ve already talked a lot about this great method but nothing in the way of how it works. Am I just making this up?

No, now’s the time I tell you how it works.

A New Way To Use The Instagram Link To A Website

You have to use your one Instagram profile link wisely so it better be interesting and it better capture interest fast. People just came from Instagram and it’s extremely visual.

Your content better be visual also!

That is actually what this is all about, creating a visual link from the very visual Instagram to your website. If your website is extremely visual already then great but it also needs to be relevant.

Yes, visual and relevance are what this is all based on.

Here’s how it works:

1 ) Instagrammer clicks on your profile link – you get one link on your Instagram profile so you have to make it count. Don’t just put your website homepage in there. Create a custom landing page just for people coming from Instagram.

2) They land on a custom landing page –  this page needs to be a page created just for people coming from Instagram. It has to be a visually interesting page.

Make it look pretty and interesting. Also, make it glaringly obvious what they should do. Do you want them to scroll down? do you want them to click on something?

Make it easy.

3) Make your website content match your Instagram content – you can, of course, have a custom intro for Instagram visitors but don’t waste too much time getting to the content.

When visitors do get to the content, make it look like your Instagram pics but link to the relevant content you want them to go to. Each image should look familiar to visitors because they just saw it on your Instagram feed.

4) Profit – well hopefully you profit because you’re driving people to good content. Profit may mean that the click drove an email sign up or something like that.

If you can drive people to your Instagram profile link and through your content to take an action then you win. Instagram doesn’t just have great engagement, though. Instagram users are more likely than most social media users to take action.

Maybe Instagrammers actions have something to do with their social media demographics.

I put this strategy to use on my website and so far it has a good conversion rate from click to subscriber. It’s not a lot of clicks but those who do are highly likely to subscribe to my content.

What It Looks Like In Practice

A custom experience is what this strategy is all about. The content to the user’s experience is personalized and it flows well.

I have employed this strategy on my website so I can show you how it looks in practice.

After a catchy profile blurb about my profile visitors are encouraged to tap on the link in my profile.

You know, that popular #linkinprofile hashtag? You have to tell them what to do next if they’re going to do it.

Here’s what that looks like:

When they tap on the link in the profile (how could they resist?) then they’re taken to a special Instagram page on my website.

It’s visual and it welcomes them by name of where they came from. It’s not too creepy but it’s personalized enough to the place they came from, Instagram.

I then encourage them to scroll down to see the same content that they’ve been looking at (and hopefully liking) from my Instagram profile. They can also tap the arrow icon and that scrolls them down to the right spot on the page.

Now they get to the blog content which is exactly the pictures that were posted on Instagram. For every featured image on a blog post, I also create a custom Instagram image to post.

I use Canva for Work to do that, check out a Canva for Work tour on YouTube I made to show how that works.

If you look at the pictures above from Instagram and these pictures you’ll notice they’re the same. There’s a bit of added pizzazz for Instagram but that’s just to get an interesting message across quickly.

That’s it!

People find something they like, tap on the blog post and on they go to read the content and subscribe to the newsletter also!

Grow Your Social Media Presence

There are tons of little tips and tricks like this you can use to fine-tune your social media funnels. It’s all about bringing visitors down a path that is interesting to them and meets your goal.

Having an interesting and complete social media presence is the first step.

If you want to know how well your social media presence measures up then you’ll want to request a free Online Presence Report. You’ll get lots of helpful information on how your online presence looks and ways you can improve it.

If you want to learn ways to grow your business online then you’ll also want to subscribe to The Online Presence Newsletter and Blog.